Crossley, 56, of Deltona is charged with trying to hire a hit man to murder Waldo, a former church friend who had hounded the evangelist for months, contending he was not fit to represent the Christian community.

Waldo, 54, of Eustis threatened to make public an affair Crossley had had with Waldo's estranged wife, Madeline.

Jury selection is to begin today. Court TV plans to cover the trial.

If Crossley is convicted, prosecutors want him sentenced to eight to 14 years in prison.

On the tape, made July 2, 1996, Crossley can be seen agreeing to give the ''hit man,'' an undercover federal agent, an unregistered 9 mm semiautomatic pistol worth $650.

In exchange, Waldo was to be shot behind the right ear.

Crossley, arrested two days after the tape was made, contends he was entrapped. He is the victim, he says, of former longtime friend William Klinger of Oviedo, who turned him in to authorities.

Klinger is expected to be one of the state's first witnesses. He pleaded no contest to reduced charges, was jailed then placed on probation after being accused of having sex with two boys. But because of his criminal record, he is sure to face a blistering attack by defense attorney Anthony Suarez.

Klinger called the Seminole County Sheriff's Office on July 2, 1996, to say Crossley appeared on the verge of killing Waldo. He told authorities that Crossley had plotted for weeks.

First, the plan was to harass Waldo, make threatening phone calls and the like, Klinger said. But then, Klinger told authorities, Crossley wanted to firebomb a vacant house Waldo owned and have him killed.

''It's getting to the point where it's really scaring me,'' Klinger said, according to a transcript of the call.

Klinger volunteered to wear a hidden microphone and suggested the Sheriff's Office provide an undercover officer to pose as a hit man.

Within 12 hours, authorities had Crossley on tape cutting a deal.

Crossley says Klinger entrapped him to make himself look good with his probation officer.

Klinger, 29, had pleaded no contest after being accused of having sex with boys ages 9 and 11 during a baby-sitting job in 1988.

He has been arrested twice since then. He pleaded no contest to buying a $1,200 bug zapper with someone else's credit card in 1988, according to Pinellas County records.

He also pleaded no contest to stealing 37 portable radios in Brevard County in 1995. He was fined $270 and placed on probation.

Crossley said he stood by Klinger through it all.

''He needed somebody to lean on, and I was the one,'' Crossley said in July before a judge imposed a gag order on him, his attorneys and prosecutors. ''I would never on a cold day do what he has done to me.''

Klinger said this week he would not discuss the case until after the trial and unless he was paid $30,000 for an interview.

One of the biggest questions in the trial will be who first suggested that Waldo be shot, Crossley or Klinger? It appears the idea came up before the Sheriff's Office got involved.

But statements Crossley and Klinger made on the tape indicate the idea may have been Klinger's and that Klinger volunteered to be the hit man.

On the afternoon of July 2, a few hours before Crossley met with the undercover agent, Crossley and Klinger met alone, and their conversation was tape-recorded.

Crossley said, ''Are you telling me then that this whole idea was your idea . . . and then you decided you didn't want to do it?''

Klinger's response: ''I just don't want to get caught, George.''

A few seconds later, Crossley said, ''. . . When you first raised this issue, you said, 'I can,' that you could do this thing.''

Klinger's answer: ''God, it's hot.''

Under Florida law, however, it doesn't matter who first suggested that Waldo be killed, defense attorneys said.

Crossley's lawyers must prove the evangelist initially was unwilling to have Waldo killed and was lured into the plot by Klinger or the undercover agent, they said.

''As a general proposition in the field of criminal law, entrapment is recognized as the lowest defense in the barrel,'' said Cheney Mason of Orlando, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. ''Never works.''